Executive Summary
Physical education in schools provides students with significant physical, mental, and emotional benefits. Federal laws do not prescribe minimum standards for physical education in schools, leaving states to create their own policies.
Introduction
Children and adolescents who participate in regular physical activity reap an enormous amount of benefits including lifelong wellness skills, positive impacts on their mental, physical and emotional health, increased ability to focus and learn, and demonstrate better classroom behavior. Additionally, exercise helps reduce the risk of developing obesity and chronic diseases, and may also help reduce feelings of depression and anxiety and promote psychological well-being. Physical education (PE) programs teach children and adolescents lifelong skills to keep them healthy and positively impact their physical, mental and emotional health.
Nearly all 50 states have set standards for PE programs and most require students to participate in classes. Of these states, 35 have participatory requirements for elementary schools, 43 have requirements for middle schools/junior highs, and 48 have participatory requirements for high schools. As students spend half their waking hours in school, it is an essential opportunity for daily programming for activity and movement to all students, regardless where they live.
Statistics and Challenges
Diverse legislative action within states result in a wide variety of policies and implementation approaches. For example, of the 50 states only Oregon and the District of Columbia meet the national recommendation for weekly time in physical education (150-225 minutes) in PE at both elementary and middle school levels). Federal laws do not prescribe minimum standards for PE in schools and rely on grant programs to create incentives to promote physical activity in the school setting as well as walking and biking between school and home.
Additionally, few states set any minimum amount of time that elementary (19 states), middle school/junior high (15 states), and high school (6 states) students participate in physical education. Most states allow substitutions (31 states) for physical education credits, and more than half of state policies (30 states) allow exemptions from PE class time or credits which undermines state requirements.
About 32% of children and adolescents between the ages of 2-19 are overweight or obese and do not meet physical activity recommendations and are not offered sufficient PE programming. The median PE budget for schools is only $764 per school, per school year – a budget which is much too low of an investment for a program that is so beneficial for students’ wellness and factor in academic success.
Recommendations
Schools must commit to making evidence-based physical education a cornerstone of their overall physical activity program. As a community member, you can attend school board meetings or contact local policymakers to voice support for PE programming, an increase in its funding, and call attention to this overall issue. There is an enormous disparity in the state requirements and implementation which affects students’ ability to engage and benefit from these programs and it is important to advocate for local, state, and federal legislation that will meet the national recommendations for weekly physical activity in schools.